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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Bypassing their edgy, early singles and concentrating on their artier, more eclectic work of the mid- and late '80s, '458489 a sides' encapsulates nearly all of the fall's many attributes. all of the singles on a-sides are culled from the era when brix smith was in the band, arguably the band's most cohesive and rewarding years. drawing from their strongest albums - 'the wonderful and frightening world of the fall', 'this nation's saving grace', 'bend sinister', 'the frenz experiment' - 'a sides' offers an excellent introduction to the fall. it is both a useful retrospective and a kind of road map, pointing out the differences between albums. for neophytes and the uninitiated, there is no better sampler, and for long-time fans, the collection reiterates what a fine singles band the fall were in their heyday.

Victorialand (1986) is the fourth album by Scottish band Cocteau Twins. Working without member Simon Raymonde, who had been enlisted to work on This Mortal Coil's Filigree & Shadow album, vocalist Elizabeth Fraser and guitarist/producer Robin Guthrie produced a record almost completely devoid of percussion, drenching acoustic guitars in reverberant space to create a wide, expansive sound that borders on ambient.

The title refers to the part of Antarctica known as Victoria Land after Queen Victoria (and forming the British claim to the continent, currently dormant under international treaty). Several song titles seem to have polar themes (although not exclusively Antarctic), including "How to Bring a Blush to the Snow", "Feet-Like Fins", presumably about penguins, "Throughout the Dark Months of April and May", which could be about the beginning of the South Polar winter, the obvious "Whales Tails" and "Oomingmak" which is an Inuit name for the Musk Ox. "The Thinner the Air" could refer to the fact that much of the continent is more than 3 kilometers (2 mi) above sea level; at this altitude air becomes noticeably thinner. As is often the case with Fraser's vocals, the lyrics are indecipherable.

On its initial release in the UK the vinyl edition was a 12" disc which played at 45 rpm, which would be normal for EP rather than a full album which would normally play at 33⅓ rpm. This was due to difficulties in the mastering process in reproducing the minimal soundscapes. Some test pressings at 33⅓ rpm are known to exist.

An uncredited instrumental version of "Oomingmak" was used as a backing track for the credits at the end of the 4AD compilation video "Lonely Is An Eyesore". This instrumental version was later made available in the 1991 4AD singles box set.

Garlands is the 1982 debut album of Cocteau Twins. It is the only album with original bassist Will Heggie.

The original British cassette release included four additional tracks from a John Peel Radio session. The original British and Canadian CD releases featured the album, the Peel session and two other tracks that were recorded for an unreleased single which was to have been the band's first release. Gordon Sharp of Cindytalk provided backup vocals on "Dear Heart" and "Hazel".

The album was produced by Anthrax and Mark Dodson, with Alex Perialas engineering. The album reached #30 on the Billboard 200 chart in late 1988 and was certified Gold by the RIAA. The songs "Who Cares Wins", dealing with the plight of the homeless, and "Antisocial" were released as singles with accompanying music videos.

The song "Misery Loves Company" was based on the Stephen King novel Misery, while "Now It's Dark" was inspired by the David Lynch film Blue Velvet, specifically the behavior of the sexually depraved, self-asphyxiating, murderous sociopath Frank Booth, as played by Dennis Hopper. The song was years later made into simlish for the radio on the The Sims PC game. The song "Make Me Laugh" is critical of Televangelism, a popular target of thrash metal bands of that period.

The back cover of the album contains a parody picture of the band drawn by Mort Drucker, a caricaturist best known for his artwork in Mad Magazine.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Let the Dominoes Fall is the seventh studio album by the American punk rock band Rancid. It was released on June 2, 2009 through Hellcat Records. It is their first album of new material in nearly six years, following 2003's Indestructible, and their first with drummer Branden Steineckert, who joined the band in 2006 after the departure of founding drummer Brett Reed.

The span of nearly six years between Indestructible and Let the Dominoes Fall was Rancid's longest gap between studio albums in their career. The band had begun working on new material after their temporary hiatus in 2004, but showed no signs of a new album until January 2008, when they announced that they had begun recording with producer and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. The writing and recording process was finally finished in February 2009.

The album's first single "Last One to Die," was released on April 7, 2009 via the band's Myspace page. As of May 26, 2009 the album can be heard on MySpace entirely. "Up To No Good" was released as the album's second single.

A deluxe edition of the album was also released on June 2, 2009. In addition to the regular album, it includes a bonus CD featuring twelve of the songs from the album in acoustic form, a DVD featuring a documentary about the making of the album, three posters and four guitar picks. It debuted at #11 on the Billboard 200, making this Rancid's highest charting album to date.

And Out Come the Wolves is the third studio album by the American punk rock band Rancid. It was released on August 22, 1995 through Epitaph Records. Rancid's popularity and catchy songs made them the subject of a major label bidding war (hence the title, ...And Out Come the Wolves[citation needed] taken from a poem in Jim Carroll's Basketball Diaries) that ended with the band staying on Epitaph. With a sound heavily influenced by ska, which called to mind Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman's past in Operation Ivy, Rancid became one of the few bands of the mid-to late-1990s boom in punk rock to retain much of its original fanbase. In terms of record sales and certifications, …And Out Come the Wolves is a popular album in the United States. It produced three hit singles: "Roots Radicals", "Time Bomb" and "Ruby Soho", that earned Rancid its heaviest airplay on MTV and radio stations to date. All the singles charted on Modern Rock Tracks. …And Out Come the Wolves was certified gold by the RIAA on January 22, 1996. It was certified platinum on September 23, 2004.

Along with Green Day's Dookie and The Offspring's Smash, ...And Out Come the Wolves helped revive mainstream popular interest in punk rock in the mid-1990s, signaled the initial rise of mainstream punk rock, and proved to be a massive success for the band, making them possibly the most popular American punk rock band to be signed onto an independent record label. Since 2004, the album has continued to sell millions of digital copies.

If you object to me by putting your music on my blog,please inform me to remove it. Blogger's and the likes Please go and buy the original Lp/Cd or whatever format you lot like these day's...any comment and suggestions are all welcome.